Weddings Galore!

We've travelled to Richmond THREE times for weddings in the last 6 weeks. :) That means LOVE. Packing up a car full of baby + baby STUFF + dog + dog stuff + us and our wee little suitcase compared to theirs three times was quite a feat. But in this family, we have developed a culture of travel, so Avery and Reese have to be along for the ride. Avery has done beautifully, and has actually been far easier than little Reese (since we had to constantly shuffle him around with different puppy-sitters)!

We have really enjoyed getting to watch some of our dear friends and past teammates and roommates declare their love publicly and begin what is pretty much the best adventure ever. And holy cow their weddings were gorgeous! I loved the venues for each of them…all outdoor weddings overlooking water and tented receptions under the stars. I loved Nicole's theme (red+black+Coca-cola!), Katherine's awesome hanging parasols (why did I not take a picture of those?), and Chez's awesome band (and homemade vanilla favors! so fun). Plus many more creative and stunning details. Well done ladies - in the (usually annoying) age of the Pinterest "phantom" wedding, you managed to let your personalities shine through without having to compete with every other "perfect" wedding on the inter webs. Congratulations Joe and Nicole, Katherine and Michael, and Chez and Chip! We love you guys are are so excited for married dates with you! 

Nicole's wedding, April 28th, 2013:

Pretty Nicole getting her hair done…Avery was enthralled. 

She sat there and watched Nicole for the better part of an hour!

Bess and me

The family pic we had to take :)

Such a diva in that coat!

Mr. and Mrs. Teichman!

Chez's wedding, May 26th, 2013:

Lesson I shouldn't have needed to learn…don't dress infants in dresses
with a crinalin (sp?)! Geez it was big - but beautiful! 

Mr. and Mrs. Snyders!

Mama Booe and Haley practicing :)

 Love this girl!

Katherine's wedding, May 11th, 2013: (Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the bride and groom!)

Love this smiling girl and her crazy dad!

She was loving them!!

Sky Deck + George

Like I said before, Jordan's friend George has been visiting. He's now in Sydney and will be traveling more before he comes back to Melbourne in a couple weeks, but here's a few pictures from last Sunday! We went to the Queen Vic Market and the Sky Deck. It was a really nice day and it was fun to do something we hadn't done before. That seems to happen more when people come visit us!

Obviously disgusted at the pig parts at the market

I love me a good ox tongue - and at such an affordable price! YUCK!

Love this of them on the tram

Beautiful St. Pauls. The centre of the city.

So glad for George to visit!

Get excited about the Sky Deck!

Loved the side of this building!

Never knew the bay was so close! Can't usually see it. 

From the 88th floor. Last picture before my camera died. :(

Thanksgiving Recap!

I had breakfast with Sherri this morning and I was reminded that I don't update my blog often enough. I really want to get into a good habit of sharing our life with those we're leaving behind when we go to Australia in....37 days!! Oh my. That is soon.

Right before thanksgiving we went on a staff retreat at Deep Creek Lake, then to the Regional Staff Conference on the eastern shore of Maryland, so we were ready to relax a little. We were also both a little sick.

with Katie and Julie at Staff Retreat

Julie and Kelsey with Katie and Lauren during our petting zoo adventure

On Monday night, we found out that one of the students very involved in Cru, Eli, had died in an accident while hiking, which was really shocking and so sad. Thankfully, we felt very comforted by the Lord and still really enjoyed Thanksgiving even though it was hard.

So our thanksgiving holiday this year was quite extended, delicious, and a great time to spend with family. Since we're leaving so soon, there are obviously limited opportunities left for us to see our extended family, so Jordan and I tried to initiate even more thanksgiving festivities than normal! Our schedule: Wednesday night - Thanksgiving dinner with Jordan's mom's side of the family. Thursday: Thanksgiving feast with my mom's side of the family. Friday: leftovers extravaganza in Manassas with my dad's side of the family. Thankfully we took some quality family walks this week too so hopefully that helped to offset some of the calories we took in without shame.

Our Wednesday dinner was planned by the "kids," i.e. Jordan, me, Jason (Jordan's brother), and Emily (their cousin). This was fun because usually everything is organized and cooked by the matriarchs of the family. So - we got our first chance to try to roast the turkey for the family! Let me tell you, it was kind of out of control. Picture me, Jordan, Jason, and Daddy Peace circled around the sink, trying to juggle a 22lb turkey, while I am digging around up to my elbows in the turkey trying to pull something out but none of us had any clue what it was! We almost cooked the turkey with the bag of giblets still inside simply because we couldn't find them! Anyway - it was hilarious and definitely memorable. Then, while cooking, we had 2 thermometers, both showing different temperatures, and because we didn't desire to make the whole family sick with food poisoning, we were concerned. Long story short, after figuring out that the convection oven actually does cook the turkey much faster than we anticipated, we just stopped cooking it, crossing our fingers that it was actually done. Then on the way to Jordan's grandpa's house (20 minutes late) where we were serving the meal, we were all carrying liquids on our laps (wassail, gravy, tea) plus the turkey and about 4 sides, with them sloshing around and us screaming when we hit a bump. We did finally make it and the turkey was wonderful! Super juicy and delicious, even two days later! Success.

here's our pretty turkey!

Thursday was a bit more relaxing since all I made were the mashed potatoes. We had fun hanging out and playing Pit and watching Oliver Twist that night.

Friday was good, but I think we talked about birth a little more than Jordan appreciated. My aunt Jen is about to pop any day now, and being a doula, she knows lots about the whole process and was just filling us in on EVERYTHING! Then she kept telling Jordan he better listen because he'll need to know this stuff some day. I thought it was interesting, but poor Jordan. The leftovers were delicious and we played a long game of Balderdash which was enjoyable - even if Dad won.

my Aunt Jen and my little cousin Myra Clare - and baby on the way!

here's the family picture we took at Jen's

That's our thanksgiving recap! We didn't do much else besides a little shopping and reading. It was relaxing.

Road Trip Recap:

Okay, I know this is bad. It's been about a month since we got to Colorado, but I sorta despise long blog picture posts. But then when I'm done I love them. And Anne Parker got on my case for not posting, so out of love for her, I am abandoning the procrastination :)

These are all of our 26 hour road trip from Blacksburg to Ft. Collins....starting with the crazy huge cross in SWVA...I love us.






Sadly, I only got pictures of 3 of the state signs out of the 6...I thought about cheating and getting them off line, but I can be honest. We just weren't quick enough!


















Us, drivin' along - with all our stuff for the summer! The car was so heavy.














In Nashville, we stopped at the Opryland Hotel - which I kept calling the Grand Ole Opry. It was so cool and a great hour-long break for us. If you've never been there - and are in Nashville - you should definitely visit. It is filled with indoor gardens, shops, pathways, restaurants. It's really a resort town all in one place. You wouldn't even have to leave if you were there for a week. We got Haagen Daaz while we were there! I love their honey vanilla flavor.




































Random bridge in Kentucky, I think. Maybe Illinois. But it's pretty.






















YAY!






In Carbondale, we stopped to visit Colleen. I haven't seen her in 2 years and it was awesome to stay with her. Her family was so hospitable and sweet. And Colleen and I stayed up til 1 talking - I love friends I can pick up with right where we left off. Happy Marriage in 16 days!!


















Driving into ST. LOUIS! The arc. Which we didn't go up in. We were trying to stick to free stuff.







Got this the second time around - when we had to turn around cause we got on the wrong highway -- oops!











Busch Stadium - the St. Louis Cardinals. You could practically see into the stadium from the interstate.







Then we stoppped at the St. Louis Zoo - which was free :) and so fun! We stayed for a couple of hours and had a great time



These were HUGE turtles!!





Love him.












These were statues - in case you didn't know.











In Kansas City, MO, we happened upon an AWESOME outdoor integrated shopping center/mall thing - kind of like Carytown in Richmond but way cleaner and bigger - and with shops you would see in a mall.






Isn't that crazy that they have the doggie bar! Such a good idea though for an outdoor mall.















All of the architecture was Islamic which was kind of weird - but i loved it!!











































Too bad we didn't go to PF Chang's or Fogo, but it was cool to see them!!
















































Amazing windmills that I was obviously obsessed with.








These were in Kansas, while we drove the 464 miles in one day.




The huge Van Gogh painting in Goodland, KS, where we were planning to stay. We decided to drive through to CO that night. But notice the scary clouds. While we were there eating, there was a tornado warning for the area - and the locals were telling us they'd take us to their shelter and stuff. Kind of unnerving, but after our near death experience, we made it out alive. :) whew.


Now we're in Ft. Collins - this is our lovely dorm room! I brought our sheets and comforter and stuff from home which makes it way more homey. And we have an awesome view!!
















See...I told you, this is from our dorm room. :)